


Convince Me of the Multiverse

by thatdragonchic



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Cliffhangers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Gen, Implied Smut, Jack being Jack, M/M, Soulmates, Team as Family, i doooon't really know what to tag this, kind of?, sudden infatuation/love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 18:16:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17606456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatdragonchic/pseuds/thatdragonchic
Summary: Mac feels as if he's been struck by lightening: he was perfect to the touch, but the second he left him, Mac knew there was nothing left after that, nothing but the lichtenberg figure from all the places he'd touched.





	Convince Me of the Multiverse

**Author's Note:**

> Based on ideas I had with Dannilea (jack walking in) and some other stuff we talked about  
> I hope you like it!

They were caught in a staring competition- to be fair, it’s because Mac caught him staring first and not the other way around. And yes he had stolen a few glances of the very attractive man previous to this, and no he had no remorse. To be fair, whatever Matty was saying held no merit to him at the moment, he couldn’t quite figure out the man’s thoughts, maybe they were just playing a game- was he interested? Thinking about him?  
Jack nudges Mac and Mac is forced to look away first, he glances back to see that he’s looked away too. Duel ops were a great idea, fantastic idea. If only because of the other agents small and playful smile.  
“Pay attention man,” Jack whispers and Mac nods, Matty staring him down for a moment, she knew. Of course she knew. She probably watched it happen, and watched them lock eyes for- how long had this been going on? How long have they been in this room? God, room numbers and keys, and dinner spots were so unimportant, because what was important right now was he get Agent Jasper Sheriff alone somewhere and-  
“Right Macgyver?”  
“Right, Matty,” Mac says, in perfect beat as if he’d heard every word. When did his eyes trail back to Agent Sheriff?  
She narrows his eyes and he narrows them back. Matty’s attention turns to Jack, Mac watching Jack give her an indecipherable look, and she nods.She lets the whole thing go without embarrassing Mac once. “Well, you’re all dismissed for dinner…” she says.  
The two teams split up, Jack and Mac taking their own car to the restaurant and Jack seems to clearly have a lot to say, but waits until they’re in the back seats of the chauffeured car.  
“Okay seriously, what the hell was that? I mean you were staring him down like there was no tomorrow- and I mean, listen, I know he has a way with a gun like no other-” Mac bites down the dirty comment that comes to mind. “-But seriously, he was not worth all that starin’ for- and what were you even starin’ at him for anyways?”  
“He was staring at me first. I was compelled to win the staring contenst..”  
Jack raises his eyebrows. “So Matty’s debriefing wasn’t worth listening to because you were… trying to win a staring competition?”  
“Yes.”  
Mac is determined not to give himself away, as if he hasn’t already. Was it that hard to tell he was staring at Agent Sheriff because he was insanely inhumanly attractive? (apparently the answer is yes.)  
Jack is not taking this information well, Mac wasn’t really ever one to play games- actually that was a lie, Mac could be sly as a cat when he chose to be, but on the job? It wasn’t like him, let alone to get so distracted by someone.  
“So- I just don’t get why you were so determined to stare at him for that long!” Jack says as the car pulls into the restaurant and Mac shrugs.  
“Do you want to try?” Mac asks, looking into Jacks eyes. “Or are you afraid you’ll lose.”  
“Oh we are not doing this, stop that.”  
Mac laughs. “Okay, then let’s join the rest inside for dinner,” Mac says, as he steps out of the car, and tips the driver to be kind. It was a brutally cold evening, (at least for Mac, who’s lived in California most his life, Afghanistan for a few years of it, Texas any remaining parts that weren’t the first two), and the restaurant was like summer sun, basking on his skin, the lighting an antique gold, the carpets an unexcited red. The smell was the precipice of heaven, and it hits Mac that he hasn’t eaten in hours.  
“Agent Macgyver,” he hears, looking up to meet the eyes of Agent Sheriff himself. “I was interested in speaking to you.”  
“You were?” he tries not to sound excited.  
“Yes… See, I heard so much about you, that I was really expecting to be impressed.”  
“And you weren’t?” Mac asks.  
“No-”  
“Now I don’t know what you’re onto here, hoss-” Jack starts and Jasper gains and loses interest in Jack so quickly it’s shocking.  
“I wasn’t talking to you, actually. Anyways, I thought your tactics were quite messy. Being a chemist myself, I was hoping maybe me and you could get a table alone. Share a few… trade secrets.”  
“You are not-”  
“I would love that, actually. I had a few questions about that moltov cocktail knives you had? Besides, I’ve never had anyone critique me before.”  
“Then, I’m honored to be the first.”  
\--  
Plates strewn aside and half eaten as they lean over the table, elbow to elbow as Mac sketches what would be the approximate measurements to make a quick and dirty (not dirty as in nuclear) homemade bomb. “So the-”  
“Well, wait, if you just- Can I have the pen?”  
“Sure?”  
“So like… if you just… okay, say you took the gun powder in a bullet, and added just a tad to it, shook it up, you’ve just upped the anti of your explosive-”  
Mac nods, watching as Jasper sketches out a mini explosion, and quickly writes an equation underneath, but he quickly runs out of space. They only lean back for another napkin, and Jasper is continuing the equation quickly, Mac intently watching. “Does that make sense?”  
“So… wait, where did you get this number here?”  
“Carry the two?”  
“There isn’t a two to carry, I think you did the math wrong actually.”  
“I did not,” he defends before looking over his math, and mac takes the pen and redoes the equation, except the whole time he knows Jasper is staring at him. He glances over, his cheeks growing bright red. There was a million things he wants to say, his chest was growing tight, he could hear his blood pounding in his ears. Why was he looking at him like that? He moves to sit down, trying to focus as he finishes, and Jasper sits back down too, but he doens’t stop watching him.  
“So what you did was- uhm… I- Why are you staring at me like that?”  
“I just… think your fascinating.”  
“I think you like what you see.”  
“Is that a problem?”  
“I…”  
The silence is an eternity, and Jasper seems to be losing the hope that he’s held in his lungs, between breaths of conversation, in his green ocean eyes. The waves come tumbling down on their subtle affair. Subtle has abruptly become forward.  
“Unless you’re only into me, because I might be into you... “  
“No, that’s not it at all. I just… It’s been a while since a guy has shown interest in me, or even flirted with me.”  
“Why don’t I believe that?”  
“It’s true! At least… I haven’t noticed. I’m… I’m bi?”  
“And you’re sure about that?”  
Mac gives a brief laugh. “Yeah… I’m just not used to telling people.”  
“You didn’t have to tell me.”  
“I wanted to tell you, because I wanted you to know that I’m an option.”  
“An available option?”  
“Yes… even if you’re… not?”  
Jasper nods, and Mac hands over the equation to him, letting him look over the corrections. A very deep quiet settles between them, Jasper’s eyes scanning over their work, comparing, contrasting, pulling at where he went wrong with his mental math, where Mac went right.  
“I am, by the way, an available option.”  
\--  
Jasper’s room was on the third floor, which was 3 floors too far, if you asked either of them. They’d lost their teams a long time ago, the dim lighting of the red elevator car was just enough to get a feel for each other, and Mac can’t remember the last time he was pressed this close to someone.  
Their breath was caught between each other, Mac holding Jasper’s face, the light twinkling in their eyes between their shadows, finding it’s way through and he felt so… familiar, somehow. Like they’d danced like this before, in another time in space maybe.  
“How much do you believe in the multiverse?”  
“Not much at all…”  
“I think it’s real.”  
“I think you’re crazy.”  
Their conversation didn’t get much further than that, as the doors opened, and the hallway was their gateway to a greater freedom, a deeper intimacy.  
\--  
His kisses don’t leave his champagne skin, smiling as he sees the look on his face.  
“I think I just found paradise, and it was you between my legs,” Mac says, Jasper laughing.  
“Either you’ve never had good sex, or you just haven’t had an orgasm in forever.”  
“You’re free to believe either one, or both. Or just that you are above average good in bed.”  
“That’s very ego boosting.”  
Mac laughs, turning into him fluidly, and they end up in a deep, impassioned kiss, holding onto each other tightly. It was easy to move together. To hold on like they can’t stand to let go, it might burn if there’s distance.  
“It’s getting cold,” Mac says.  
“We should maybe get dressed…”  
Mac nods in agreement, but only flops to the bed and hugs the pillow. It occurs to him for a moment all the health hazards of being naked in a hotel room bed, which probably hasn’t been washed for inevitable amount of time. He sits up, trying not to let it get to him. He watches as Jasper digs for something, pulling out a black sweatshirt and Mac reaches out.  
“Toss it, please.”  
“What?”  
“Your sweatshirt.”  
“My sweatshirt?”  
“Yeah, proper first time etiquette.”  
“Yeah, when we were nineteen,” Jasper drawls, a lazy, and very thick southern accent coming through, Mac laughing.  
“Last time I slept with a man was when I was nineteen,” he mimics his accent, and Jasper gives a half smile, going over and gently handing it to him.  
“You’re damn cute, you know that?”  
“I could if you say it again, actually.”  
Jasper kisses him, Mac leaning into his touch. He takes the sweatshirt, hugging it to his chest and his mouth turns down, just slightly, kissing his chest. “You’re cute,” Jasper confirms, ending any debate there might be.  
Mac wiggles into his sweatshirt, and lays back into the bed, arms over his head, resigned. “You can take my flannel, it’s fleece,” he informs, and Jasper slides it on easily, no questions asked. He climbs into bed, kissing his arm and Mac hums softly, head burrowing in the sweatshirt that was a touch too big for him. It was soaked in Jasper’s cologne, and something else, very distinct but no adjectives came to mind. He’s comfortable, Jasper’s arms around him, head on the pillows beneath his sinewy arms. They breathe in an offbeat tandem, and it occurs to them they should turn the lamps off, but neither makes the move to. One second it’s late in the night, the next it’s bright morning.  
It strikes him like lightning. Suddenly and painlessly, he doesn’t know how he’s ever going to move on from this, ever live his life again. Jasper’s wormed his way into Mac’s veins, and he was charming, and tender, and perhaps thoughtful. He was warm to the touch, he could feel his dreamy smile pressed against his arm, where he now lay, silent and graceful, and steadfast in the clutches of sleep. So elegantly undisturbed. He was perfect, in the broadest sense of the word, Mac didn’t forget how graceful he was in combat, how nobody imposed threat upon Jasper Sheriff. He so gracefully declares that he holds all the cards, and nobody doubts him. He lead the dance, and everybody followed him.  
Mac doesn’t think he’d ever meet someone like him again, and it stings. The lichtenberg figure branches from Jaspers touch on his stomach, to the press of his face on his arm, along the arch of his back where he had so delicately pressed kisses up to his shoulder. It took over his body, tattooed itself into his skin. The impact was phenomonal, and he wasn’t sure if he’d survive the aftershock.  
\--  
“What if he killed him?” Jack says, pacing the room, Riley, Bozer and Leanna looking at him unimpressed. “Seriously, you saw that guy! He was a killing machiiine, he could charm anyone into doing anything and if Mac was-”  
“They were still at the restaurant, doing math over chicken picatta on the table,” Riley says. “I don’t think he’s dead.”  
“He’s not answering his door, or his calls, or texts- find out where he is. Where’s his phone lead to.”  
Riley sighs, and she pulls out her laptop. A few taps later, she locates Mac’s phone. “Third floor, room 352.”  
Jack doesn’t hesitate to load his gun, holster it, and start moving upstairs. The halls are quiet in the early morning, eerily bright with the flourescent lights up above. God knows what that man did to his boy and oh was Jack so going to kill him for it.  
He makes his way up the stairs, finding a janitor slumped against the wall sleeping. Jack bites his lip before glancing around and grabbing his badge, to swipe into any room. He leaves the sleeping man, tip toeing up to the third floor. He sighs as he realizes that this was going to take a while, as he looks at the door marked 301 and across from it 302.  
Time moves irreversibly slow, and he thinks of a million scenarios. Macs in trouble. Macs hurt, Macs wounded. Macs shot. Mac was taken advantage of and left to figure out in an empty room. What if that bastard had gotten away? What if his boy was dying? What if he wasn’t in there.  
The door was just around the corner, he was sure of it. 346… 347… 348… and around the corner, on the right side, that was the doorway to his target. He approaches it carefully, swiping the key card in the door and he steps in with his gun pointed, swiftly making his way into the room, Mac sitting up startled, his blonde hair askew, and he bunches the blankets up, holding them to his chest. Jack’s heart practically stops, his gun almost slipping from his hands.  
\--  
“Jack? What the hell are you doing?” Mac asks, and he has to glance down to make sure his bare legs were covered, because Mac firmly believed that Jack didn’t need to see any of that, and god he really wishes he had put on some underwear.  
He watches Jack look between him, and the sleeping man in the bed, the man who looked a lot like Agent Sheriff was sleeping on the pillows, arm slid around Mac’s waist. Mac gives him a look, silently reasserting his question.  
“I thought- well you haven’t been… answering anything and- I thought you were in trouble.”  
“Oh my god, Jack… I’m fine, really! see? I’m fine. Now please- go.”  
Jack’s about as flush as a farmer on a hot day, and he nearly drops his gun again as he goes, turning briefly to apologize, but Mac was so wide eyed and embarrassed that Jack isn’t sure Mac was ever really going to let this one down.  
Mac takes a shuddered breath, and he’s surprised that Jasper is still snoozing against his side. Mac bites his lip, and he wonders how likely their worlds are to collide. If it was possible… his head is spinning, telling him that it isn’t. That this was a mistake. How could he hope so much for something that so clearly wasn’t meant to piece together? They were two puzzle pieces that weren’t supposed to match.  
(So why did they fit together anyways?)

—

“So... I was wrong,” Jack says. “They just accidentally switched room keys or somethin because Mac was-“

”fine?” The other three confirm.

”yeah... fine.”  
\---  
The tension was high as Mac got out of the shower and was pulling his clothes back on, left with no choice but to wear Jasper’s shirt until he got to his own room.  
“Leaving so soon?” he hears from the bed.  
“No… Just, you slept forever and I got bored,” he says. He can see Jasper nod from the corner of his eye and turns to find his belt. He feels Jasper behind him, before he ever sees him, and he turns in his arms to look him in the eye. “I can’t do this.”  
“Do what?”  
“This…” he gestures vaguely between them.  
“Why? I thought we found paradise.”  
Mac smiles. “Because we have the same dangerous job… we live thousands of miles apart… with totally different friends, and tactics, and… we hardly even know each other-”  
“So…?”  
“And you’re incredible, at your job, at everything as far as I could tell-”  
“That’s the problem?”  
“Yes, because one day you’re going to wake up and decide I’m not enough for you, and I don’t want to be there when that happens. Or… to get everyone to look at me with pity, because they knew from the start-”  
“The start, nobody knows this happens… And if you don’t-” Jasper audibly takes a deep breath. “If you don’t want anybody to know, nobody has to know.”  
“Jack thought you hurt me.”  
“What?”  
“He came to the room because I didn’t text back, and he thought- that I don’t know, you threw me in a ditch or something.”  
Jasper nods. “And you’re upset because Jack… doesn’t approve.”  
“No… I don’t know, I just- suddenly it hit me, that maybe we weren’t meant to work out.”  
Jasper nods, and he steps back. “Okay…”  
“What?”  
“Okay. If you… don’t want this, that’s okay. It was one night, we had a good time.”  
Mac doesn’t know he’s left his own lichtenburg figure, except the one he left wasn’t so painless.  
\--  
The tension the entire debriefing is palpable. It stretches and twists and sticks in the air, makes their breath thicker, and the air in their lungs heavy.  
Life was so cruel. Wasn’t it?  
The debriefing ends, and Mac is the first to leave, Jasper follows him, catching him as he waits for the elevator. “I take it back.”  
“Take what back?”  
“I don’t believe in the multiverse, but I don’t think you’re crazy for believing in it. In fact, i think with enough solid ground and evidence, you could do a really good job of convincing me that there are alternate universes where me and you exist but don’t end up together.”  
“Wha-”  
“Because this definitely isn’t that universe, and I know you agree. Me and you? We’re going to end up together.”


End file.
